Authorities in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol planned to start evacuating some residents under a temporary ceasefire deal, after a similar deal a day earlier collapsed with Russia and Ukraine blaming each other for the failure.
The city council said the evacuation would begin at noon and would extend until 9pm, a plan announced as Russia's assault on Ukraine entered its 11th day and refugees continued to flood across the border into Ukraine's neighbours.
Kyiv renewed its call for the West to toughen sanctions beyond an existing effort to isolate Russia economically, and to deliver more weapons to repel the invasion. Moscow calls its actions a "special military operation".
Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over Saturday's failed ceasefire to allow civilians to flee Mariupol and another southern city, Volnovakha. The Mariupol mayor has said he wants to help more of the city's 400,000 residents to leave.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, police said there was relentless Russian shelling and air raids in the northeast Kharkiv region.
The World Health Organization said there had been several attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities. The attacks caused multiple deaths and injuries, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a Twitter message, but gave no details.
"Attacks on healthcare facilities or workers breach medical neutrality and are violations of international humanitarian law," he said.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian areas.
People who have been able to escape Ukraine spilled into Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere. Their numbers are expected to reach 1.5 million by Sunday.
"We don't want to leave Ukraine - we love it," said Olha Kucher, director of the Zaporizhzhia Central Christian Orphanage, speaking in the western city of Lviv as she evacuated children. "But unfortunately we must leave."
A child fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine carries his dog at a train station in Zahony, Hungary March 5, 2022 ReutersDrive This Evil Out
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on those in areas occupied by Russian troops to fight.
"We must go outside and drive this evil out of our cities," he said in an address on Saturday night.
British military intelligence said on Sunday that Russian forces were targeting populated areas in Ukraine, comparing the tactics to those Russia used in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016. But it said Ukrainian resistance was slowing the advance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated on Saturday that he wanted a "demilitarized" and "denazified" neutral Ukraine. He likened Western sanctions "to a declaration of war," adding: "Thank God it has not come to that."
Ukraine and Western countries say Putin's reasons are a baseless pretext for the invasion and have imposed sweeping sanctions to cripple its economy.
The United States has promised to send more weapons and has said it could escalate sanctions. President Joe Biden has sought $10 billion in emergency funding to respond to the crisis.
Zelenskiy asked for help securing aircraft from European allies in a call with US lawmakers. Washington said it was working with Poland as Warsaw considered providing fighter jets.
He also called for more lethal aid and repeated a call for a no-fly zone, a move NATO has resisted for fear that it would escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine's borders.
Russia has told the EU and NATO to stop sending "state-of-the-art weapons systems" to Ukraine.
Mediation
Sanctions have pushed many Western companies to exit investments in Russia, while some Russian banks have been shut out of global financial payment systems, driving down the rouble and forcing Moscow to jack up interest rates.
In the latest tightening of the screws, US payment companies Visa Inc V.N and MasterCard Inc MA.N said they would suspend credit card operations in Russia.
International mediation efforts have continued.
